Everyone needs a subversion repository

• Have regular backups
• Make sure backups are at a remote location
• Get web access to my files from any browser
• Keep local copies to edit while offline and synchronize later
• Allow me to retrieve previous versions of file
• Allow me to share files and collaborate on files with others

Subversion provides all of these. However, it isn’t perfect. It’s a powerful tool and sometimes I just want something simpler. Also, not all applications play nice with subversions .svn directories. For example, there’s a bug in Apple’s Pages application that deletes the .svn directories from the file bundles.

Which brings me to my point here—I think most people want what subversion supplies. In fact, I think just about everyone needs a subversion server, they just don’t know it. However, subversion is just way too complicated for the average computer user. What users really need is some sort of seamless distributed backup system that just works. Backups, distributed access, and revision control really shouldn’t be something I, or anyone else, has to think about when using a computer. It should just happen. And if I happen to want to peak under the covers and work at a lower level like what subversion allows, that should be possible too.

Of course, none of this is really easy. But is is possible. Already, people are talking about better online storage. Hopefully the pieces fall together.